Crushable Quotable: Nathan Fillion Almost Chickened Out Of Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing

It warms my heart that seven years after it came out, Joss Whedon‘s space-western film Serenity is still being screened to enthusiastic audiences, like at this weekend’s Hero Complex Film Festival in Los Angeles. Even better, star Nathan Fillion was there to do a fun Q&A about the show’s legacy—considering that playing Captain Mal Reynolds on Firefly kickstarted his Hollywood career.

“I had never done Shakespeare before,” Fillion confides. “I actually tried to chicken out of it… I had to work a lot of late nights for Castle and there was just so much dialogue, too much to memorize.”

Fillion even called Whedon before shooting began, telling him about his difficulties, asking, “Do you have anyone who could replace me?” According to Fillion, Whedon took a moment, then told him “Relax. It’s just a lark. No big deal. Don’t worry about it. Take Saturday off. We’ll work around your schedule… And I don’t have a replacement.”

Fillion was earlier quoted as comparing Whedon’s “Joss-speak” — made famous in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and definitely utilized in Firefly – to Shakespeare, saying that you can’t paraphrase either one. And ultimately he got to do the latter, since Whedon convinced him that they would work around his schedule so he could play the Captain Hammer-like idiot character Dogberry.

One of my absolute favorite things about Whedon is how he’s surrounded himself with people he trusts and likes, and then works with them on multiple projects. It never feels like you’re seeing the same character twice. In fact, Fillion told attendees that the person who did the best Shakespeare was Alexis Denisof, who we know as Wesley Wyndham-Price from Buffy and Angelbut who also appeared briefly in The Avengers quite unrecognizable as The Other.

“The guy will make you cry,” Fillion promised of Denisof’s performance as witty bachelor Benedick, who falls for Amy Acker‘s Beatrice. We’ll take his word for it for now, but we want to see the movie as soon as possible!